Democratic Republic of the Congo

For three decades, conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has led to one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. After the Rwandan Genocide in 1994, Rwanda’s new Tutsi government became involved in the DRC, known as Zaire at the time. The Tutsi are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region who overcame persecution from Hutu, Rwanda’s other major ethnic group, militias in Rwanda. Fearing that they still faced a threat Hutu groups in the DRC, Rwandan troops and DRC Tutsi militant groups launched an invasion of Zaire, beginning the First Congo War. With the support of nearby countries such as Angola and Uganda, the Tutsi coalition forces, led by Laurent Kabila, toppled the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko, Zaire’s dictator. As the new president of Zaire, Kabila quickly restored the country’s previous name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 1998, rebellion in the eastern provinces escalated into a massive civil war, the Second Congo War, that drew in the Ugandan, Rwandan, Angolan, Namibian, and Zimbabwean governments. Kabila was assassinated in 2001 and was succeeded by his son who sought to end the war as quickly as possible. Peace treaties were signed in 2002, ending the civil war that is estimated to have killed over three million people, making it the deadliest conflict since World War Two.

Fighting in the DRC has continued to be a pervasive problem up to present day. Militant groups, most notably the March 23 Movement (M23), constantly clash in attempts to gain territory. M23 staged insurrections in 2012, 2017, and 2022, resulting in the involvement of the Congolese Army and thousands of displacements. Additionally, the DRC is extremely resource rich in cobalt, uranium, and copper, making mines a common target of militant groups, drawing in national security forces to defend the assets.

Since the M23 rebellion in 2022, fighting in the DRC’s eastern regions has been particularly fierce, internally displacing hundreds of thousands of people. Today, 6.1 million people are internally displaced in the DRC, making it the fourth largest internal displacement crisis in the world. Another one million have fled to nearby countries. Since the First Congo War broke out in 1996, it is estimated that six million people have died as a result of conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.